The overall fertigation & chemigation market is projected to grow from USD 31.06 billion in 2015 to USD 42.18 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 6.3% from 2015 to 2020. Fertigation & chemigation is the slow application of nutrients and water on or below the soil by surface drip, subsurface drip, bubbler, and micro-sprinkler systems. Fertigation & chemigations offer several advantages, such as minimum wastage of water, minimal labor requirement, and ability to provide protection against drought conditions, which, in turn, help in the growth of the market. The fertigation & chemigation market has been expanding with the increasing scarcity of water across the globe and strong progress and initiatives taken by emerging economies through water replenishment and programs. Government initiatives for optimum use of water resources in agriculture and further support for adopting fertigation & chemigation in the form of subsidies would put the market on a strong growth curve in the coming years. The base year considered for the study is 2014, and the forecast has been provided for the period between 2015 and 2020.
Market Dynamics
Drivers
- Efficiency of nutrient utilization
- Nutrient leaching losses are minimized
- Improved plant growth, yield, and quality of crops
- Increasing demand for quality food products
Restraints
- Critical nutrient application doses
- High initial investments
Opportunities
- Strong progress in new and emerging markets
Challenges
- Improving efficiency
The high efficiency in nutrient utilization drives the global fertigation & chemigation market
Fertigation is a method of fertilizer application where the nutrients are added into the irrigation water and supplied through the drip system. Fertigation and microirrigation offer the potential for specific control of nutrients as well as water. A main benefit of fertigation is that it provides greater flexibility and control over the applied nutrients as compared to conventional broadcast applications. Fertilizers are applied when required and in small doses. In fertigation, fertilizer solution is distributed through the irrigation system. The efficiency of this method increases due to the very high availability of the nutrients. In this method, both liquid fertilizers as well as water-soluble fertilizers are used, and their efficiency increases by 80 to 90% as the nutrients are supplied near the active root zone through fertigation which results in greater absorption by the crops.
Food&farming 